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While on vacation in Maine, my family and I invented a game: “North Shore or coastal Maine”?
We spent four days in Bar Harbor, Maine, a town snuggled in next to Acadia National Park. The town center is down the road of clusters of motels and colonial-era inns, advertising “Acadia in our backyard.” There must be at least three on every block, each commanding its own space with impressive columns or idyllic masonry fit for a postcard. About a fifteen-minute drive down the road rests the center of Bar Harbor: a cluster of streets packed tight with restaurants boasting the best locally caught lobster in the state, lobster ice cream, and redundantly branded apparel.
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Coffee Talks
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced chai with oat milk) – you choose the place. I’ll provide the topic. (Although I am categorizing this post within the "Coffee Talks" series, it deviates from that label as well as the tone and style of my traditional blog posts. I felt this essay's thesis and message applied to the current political climate, and I wanted to share my reflections as an emerging writer. And finally, I just thought it would be fun to attempt my literature review since high school!) “For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind a single voice.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own Oh, this takes me back to high school. Junior year, AP Literature. A semester of the classics - Pride and Prejudice, Invisible Man, The Sun Also Rises – excruciating timed essays, and rushed thematic group projects. Unhinged analyses, covered in highlighter ink, the side of my left hand burnt by ink, color-coded tabs decorating the pages in rainbow formation. Frantic late-night SparkNotes and Cliff notes deep dives for self-consolation before the exam. Reading, rereading, committing dates, names, and facts to memory to forget them when I received the menacing packet. And in the biweekly finale, the culminating essay, featuring the stressful clickety-clack of old keyboards in the computer lab.
A bit overdramatic? Perhaps but my (Ivy-league bound) classmates hopefully will vouch for me. However melodramatically dreadful I recall literature review essays, I always felt an affinity towards the analytical process. Digging out quotes, assessing figurative language, and, recently, deciphering the style and syntax. A book is a puzzle that my brain is fit to disassemble and mend. So, I am ready to give the literature review another go, but with a personal twist (aka a social commentary). The subject: Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. 
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About the Coffee Talks series!
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced latte with oat milk) – you choose the place. I’ll provide the topic. Before my twenty-second birthday, I lived in four cities spanning three countries. I am accustomed to living out of a backpack or suitcase; hurriedly packing up my life into boxes, grocery bags, or carry-on; and building a routine in a changing atmosphere. And no matter the duration – one month, two months, one year, eighteen years– I consider all my temporary addresses a piece of "home."
Follow Journal of an Evolving Teacher on social media!
About the "Coffee Talks" series
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced chai with oat milk) – you choose the place. I’ll provide the topic. I find comfort in rewatching the same shows (and movies) over and over. I am currently on my fifth rewatch of Gilmore Girls: a classic early 2000s rom-com, small-town, mother-daughter show filled with quirky but heartwarming characters with names like Suki and Kirk. Whenever I start the series again, I can't help but smile at the sight of a young Lauren Graham trying to order her sixth cup of coffee from the grumpy yet lovable Luke Danes.
The events follow a predictable sequence: first love, teenage arguments, graduations, poor decisions, making amends, and repeating the cycle. Quick banter and witty dialogue from the iconic duo (Lorelai and Rory) fill the hours, and I daydream of moving to a town with Babbette, Morey, and their gnome family as my next-door neighbors. 
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A couple of days ago --after the encouragement from one of my classmates-- I reached out to my Instagram followers asking, "If you were to get coffee with me, what would you like to know?"
As much as I try to share balance between my work and life, you see only a glimpse of who I am outside of the classroom. So, here are my responses to a few questions I received! Let's share an (imaginary, yet still delicious) coffee. About this new series: "Coffee Talks"
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced chai with oat milk) – you choose the place. What would you like to know? |
AuthorMeghan Hesterman (she/her) is an aspiring educator, storyteller, and traveler. Through regular posts and commentary, she candidly reflects on her evolution as an educator and young adult. Categories
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